They also provide a useful way to review the products selected for purchasing, and offer site owners a chance to reassure customers about security and payment options.
Let's look at some examples of basket design used by popular online retailers, to see what works, and what doesn't...
Stats suggest that the average abandonment rate for shopping carts is around 60% and that 12% of these customers bail out before reaching the checkout stage.
Many customers may have simply added items to their shopping basket for comparison purposes, which is something etailers cannot control, but others may well be abandoning them due to problems which can easily be fixed.
Here are ten tips on how make the process as easy as possible for customers: